"Hey, Y'all, I Need Some Help!"

Paula Deen can make a mean fried chicken, but organize a kitchen? Not so much. That's why GH came to the rescue, streamlining her space so it looks and cooks that much better! In her own words, she shares how it all happened

"I know I can cook, but the place where I cook...it's a mess! I'm very disorganized, I'll admit, and so when I got to chatting with my friends at GH and they offered to clean up my act, you know I jumped at the chance.

Let me tell you what my problems are. I am guilty of buying way too many gadgets —way too many! And though I try to keep things nice and orderly, sometimes I get distracted and stick saucepans where the stockpots should go. Then there's the fact that I have people I work with running through my kitchen all the time, taking things out and putting them back willy-nilly. It drives me crazy! I say to them, 'One day I'm going to come to your house and move everything around and see how you like it!'

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Another big problem is, I never have enough drawers — I need more! — and the drawers I do have are a big mess.

Sometimes, too, I fall in love with how things look, even if they don't work well. Like my sink. It's antique, and it's copper. Came from Paris. I would love to throw it in a river! It's not practical; it's so deep that when you wash dishes, you come away hurting because it cuts your belly as you lean over. We had to have a welder build me some racks to go inside it so I could keep my little dish-washing bucket raised up some. So I made a bad, bad error with that one (but it is the most gorgeous sink I ever did see).

There are some things I got right in my kitchen, of course. I have my dish pantry, which I just love. You know, I said to Oprah, 'This room is as important as the laundry room!' Every kitchen should have at least a small dish pantry — lots of shelves where you can see what you've got. Never again will I have to get down on my hands and knees to try to find a piece that I know I have somewhere. You know it's right there at your fingertips when you've got pantry shelves set up at eye level.

I have the same lack-of-space problem as most people. But you know why? Because everybody likes to hang out in the kitchen. I've put in the most narrow table I can find. But my husband, Michael, is a big man, and when he sits in his chair comfortably, I have to turn sideways to get by.

But that table helps me out. Because, as I said, I think you can never have enough drawers, I had the woodcrafters make it with two drawers on each side, so that gave me my junk drawers, or a place I can keep something that I don't want to get away from me. Like a recipe someone gave me — I know if I put it in one of those drawers, I can always go back and find it. And nobody knows they're there!

For keeping my cookware, instead of cabinets, I love what looks like a cabinet but actually is big drawers — I love pull-out drawers for pots and pans and things like that. So much easier.

I'll tell you something else I did right in my kitchen, and that's my appliance pantry. It houses my mixer — so I walk over there, I make my cake, and I shut the thing off. If I don't have time to wash everything, I just shut those doors and nobody knows. My coffee machine is there...my food processor...my waffle iron. I use that waffle iron a lot. You can have two waffles going at one time. And I have a fabulous place where I keep all my baking things — my measuring cups, my mixing bowls, my flour, my sugar, my baking powder, my baking soda. Everything's right there so I don't have to go hunting for it.

Because so many people come in and touch my stuff — they'll borrow it for a photo shoot — things always go missing. That's what happened with my little round cutting board that my daddy gave me when I was 18. When I first got married, I came over to see Mama and Daddy, and I said, 'Oh, I don't have a cutting board.' And he reached over — now, all my mother had was that one little round cutting board — and he took it off Mama's counter and said, 'Now you have one, darling.' And Mama said, 'Don't give her my only cutting board, Earl!' And he said, 'No, it's hers.' I have moved 37 times, but I have kept that cutting board with me. Now, with all the filming going on in my house, I have no idea where things go, and one day I was out in the garage going through a box that they were getting ready to take to Goodwill — and there was my cutting board! You know, I haven't seen my daddy since I was 19, because he died at 40. I took some paper and a Magic Marker, and I taped this message on it: 'If you touch this, your % is grass, and I will track you down.' There aren't many things that can get me riled up, but believe me, I'm very protective of the few little things that I've got that connect me to my roots.

Anyway, so let me tell you my favorite things from how GH fixed my kitchen. I just love what they did with my pantry. Oh, that chalkboard inside the door! I did not even know that there was such a thing as chalkboard paint. And the little round tags — they keep everything neat and are just adorable. The buffet station, that's just great. I'm actually going to take the utensil and napkin caddy and keep it right by the stove so I don't have to walk all the way around to that silverware drawer to get a butter knife when I'm cooking.

There are so many ideas here; thank you, GH, I think I'll use every one of them. It's going to be a busy year, so being all tidied up will help me get through it. I have two more grandsons than I did last year. I just want to see them all the time; they change so much at this age. And I have my new food line in the works — I think it's over 200 items. Hopefully I can make a difference; it's delicious food that's just so easy. I think it'll help people enjoy their lives...it's good! It's not all healthy food, but then, I always say, 'Lord, just please don't let me die chomping on a piece of lettuce.' I am so blessed. I've been way over-blessed. At 64 years old, I look forward to going to bed every night so I can wake up in the morning and see what blessing is going to come my way that day. Because you never, ever know what God's got in store for you."